


Paper Hearts

by Elthadriel



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Origami
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-06 15:11:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3138911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elthadriel/pseuds/Elthadriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dorian and Lysander's relationship seems to constantly involve Dorian's little paper models.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paper Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a drabble based on the fact the white flower in Dorian's romanced Tarot Card looked a little like some origami flowers I've seen but I'd been resisting the urge to write some Dorian/Lysander stuff for a while so it just sort of happened.
> 
> I will also have you know I was called a nerd by my friend for knowing about, and be being really excited by, the history of paper in the Medieval period. I did consider just writing an essay on the topic instead but I resisted... Just.

“Is that a nug?” Lysander asked, picking up a small model from a collection of similar ones from the table next to Dorian. It looked like folded, thin parchment, and even had Dorian’s hand writing scrawled across it, but it didn’t feel like any parchment Lysander had encountered.

Dorian glanced up from the note he was scribbling in the margin of the book he was reading, to look at what Lysander was talking about. Lysander had learnt that despite Dorian’s love books he didn’t appear to take particular care of them. He had seen the other mages who loitered around the library wince as Dorian would place books face down when he was distracted, risking cracking the spine. That didn’t even begin to cover the looks on their faces as Dorian scrawled in the margins, anything from corrections, his own thoughts on the subject, to, in one memorable case, a rather unflattering depiction of Mother Giselle in a copy of the Chant of Light.

“Cute isn’t it,” Dorian smiled fondly at the little model Lysander was turning over in his hands.

“It’s oddly charming,” Lysander agreed, “Where did you learn to make them? I can’t imagine that this is something covered in the Vyrantium Circle. Was it before or after your class on perfecting your Evil Tevinter Laugh?”

“After, of course,” Dorian said with a smile, “But you’re right, this wasn’t a part of my formal education; Felix taught me. He used to do it to my research when I was working late, drove me mad. He taught me how as a peace offering and I ended up doing it to my own notes for him.” Dorian sighed. “He called it Origami, I think the Qunari came up with it.”

“Felix doesn’t sound like a distraction at all, I’m sure Alexis was thrilled,” Lysander said drily. 

Dorian chuckled, “Felix was very good at not getting caught so mostly it was just my work ethic that was called into question.”

“Felix sounds like the fun sort. I wish I could have got to know him better.”

“He would have liked you,” Dorian said softly.

“What is this exactly?” Lysander asked, changing the subject. He rubbed the material between his fingers, still having no idea what it was.

“It’s paper, made from pressed plant fibres if I remember correctly. Something else we picked up from the Qunari. The Imperium has almost completely adopted it for anything but the most formal documents. Cheaper, less easily damaged and of course, can be used to make model nugs. Still, it hasn’t caught on the South. Someone should work out how to make Origami dogs then I’m sure Ferelden at least would adopted it.”

“Well, they certainly are cute,” Lysander said, placing it back down next to the others nugs formed out of Dorian’s notes. 

“You can have it if you want,” Dorian said, attention returning to his book to avoid looking at Lysander. He looked up again only moments later, though he stared at the nugs, not his friend.

“Actually, you can’t have that one, there are notes on it I need. You can have this one,” He nudged a different nug towards Lysander with his little finger. 

Lysander grinned, picking up the offered nug, not commenting that he had never once seen Dorian treat any of his notes as disposable or that this one seemed better made than first one he had picked up.

“Thank you.”

Dorian shrugged off the gratitude and returned his attention to his book. 

\---

The paper nug ended up sitting on the desk in his room.

When he was avoiding going over the reports he was meant to be working on he would pick it up and try to make out some of the visible words written in Dorian’s surprisingly plain script. Lysander had seen him use calligraphy effortlessly when writing letter or reports but when writing his own notes he fell back on a quicker and far simpler handwriting. 

Lysander would never admit it but he liked this handwriting more. To him it somehow seemed to be a little glimpse at who Dorian was when he wasn’t trying to impress people.

He wasn’t entirely what Dorian had been reading about, the folds made it impossible to make out full sentences and despite the neatness Dorian wrote obnoxiously small. From what he could make out however he assumed it had something to do with the theory behind necromancy.

It was a fair assessment than that even if Lysander had had the mind to unfold the nug so he could read all of the notes he was unlikely to understand them in the slightest.

It was a silly thing to keep, and after being knocked onto the floor several times either by a breeze from his open windows or from him carelessly moving stacks of paper around it was a little battered around the edges. 

\---

He didn’t just make nugs Lysander noticed, but a variety of other animals from swans to horses and on one occasion a dragon that had taken a couple of restarts and almost forty minutes to complete. The simpler animals were the most common however and if there were any scattering his desk there was almost always at least one nug among them.

He ended up making them almost always when he had been working for long period of time and his focus started to slip. He would dog ear the page he was reading if he was going for a more complicated design or just leave it open on his lap if it was something simple he could make in only a few minutes.

Lysander knew almost all of them ended up being unfolded and flattened out to the best of Dorian’s ability before being collected with the rest of his notes in Dorian’s bedroom. Even the dragon was unfolded through Dorian looked a little mournful at that. 

\---

Lysander, Dorian had realised, was far more of a distraction than Felix had ever been. Though, he supposed it was partially his fault, he did encourage him.

Since their flirting had finally resulted in kissing while tucked into one of the alcoves in the library Lysander had been like a dog with a bone; not that Dorian was complaining. 

Lysander would appear whenever Dorian was working late enough that the library was almost empty and collect a book of his own before settling next to Dorian. He would sit just a little too close, knees almost touching and proceed to tease and taunt Dorian shamelessly until Dorian abandoned whatever he was doing to kiss Lysander into silence. 

That evening hadn’t been any different.

Lysander trapped Dorian between his body and the table until Dorian’s hands spread on the desk behind him to keep him from toppling over. Lysander kissed like he had all the time in the world and intended to spend all of it right there. He was slow and tender in a way Dorian had never been kissed before, While it wasn’t a secret between them that they both wanted to at some point end up in a bed together Lysander didn’t kiss like he was leading to that. They were kissing for the sake of kissing, 

Lysander stepped into the open ‘V’ of Dorian’s legs forcing him half up onto the desk but he risked removing one of his hands from the table, wrapping it around Lysander’s back, gripping his shirt, tightly enough to keep him upright.

Dorian broke the kiss to nip under Lysander’s jaw enjoying the barely audible noise it draw from Lysander and the way his hands tightened at Dorian’s waist and bare shoulder. The pair were still learning each other’s preferences but it hadn’t taken a genius to learn that Lysander liked being bitten. Soon Dorian hoped he’d have an opportunity to bite at more than Lysander’s neck and mouth.

Lysander recaptured Dorian’s lips with his own making another pleased sound when Dorian closed his teeth around Lysander’s lower lip. Lysander responded by moving his hand from Dorian’s waist to the inside of his upper thigh, fingers only inches from Dorian’s crotch. Dorian only just managed to stop himself from trying to arch into the touch.

A noise from across the library caused them to pull apart, almost guiltily both having spent enough time sneaking around to be wary of being caught. After a moment of silence Lysander laughed softly, dropping his forehead against Dorian’s.

The casual affection of the motion made Dorian’s chest ache in a way he hadn’t experienced since Relenus.

Lysander glanced over Dorian’s shoulder at the desk he had the mage half sprawled across.

“I think we crushed your paper horse,” Lysander said with a grin, leaning past Dorian to pick up the squashed model. The unfortunate thing had must have found itself under Dorian at some point in the proceedings though he couldn’t actually remember it happening. Lysander could be very distracting.

Dorian plucked it from Lysander’s hands and gave it a dismissive look and cast it over his shoulder where it bounced once on the table before landing on the floor. His hands found Lysander’s waist and pulled him back into the kiss.

Lysander laughed into his mouth.

\---

Dorian and Lysander hadn’t spoken in days.

They had gone longer without talking of course, when Lysander had been called away on Inquisitor duty and Dorian was in the middle of research that meant he could better serve the Inquisition by staying behind but this was different. He kept seeing Lysander moving around Skyhold as he normally would but when before he would find time, time that Dorian was sure he was meant to be doing other things, to hide in Dorian’s section of the library with him, he had barely glanced Dorian’s way.

Dorian wasn’t sure when it had become routine but they had lunch together most days. Or, at least, Lysander bought food around lunchtime and didn’t complain when Dorian stole it off his plate. He noticed now when he became hungry around midday and was forced to abbadon his work to go find food.

With the exception of when Lysander was out of Skyhold without him he couldn’t remember having gone that long without talking to him since they had fallen through time together. It made Dorian anxious in a way he didn’t like to think about.

They had made eye contact once across the library, when Lysander had been returning from talking to Leliana and Lysander had caught him watching. The Inquisitor had raised his eyebrows questioningly. Dorian and squared his jaw and very deliberately looked back down at the book he was reading. When he next dared to looked up Lysander had gone.

Lysander had called him brave once, after he had spoken with his father, Dorian only wished he was brave enough to swallow his pride and apologise. 

He wasn’t even sure why he had ever been annoyed in the first place. He didn’t like people rummaging through his past, but Lysander had been there when he’d spoken with his father, already been knee deep in parts of Dorian’s history he didn’t want to think about never mind share. Lysander helping him correct a mistake was nothing in comparison.

Lysander shouldn’t have pressed the Birthright issue but Dorian knew he had nothing but good intentions; Lysander didn’t have have a malicious bone in his body. It wasn’t even that he didn’t want people to think he was using Lysander, but Lysander had pointed out that he had once helped a man find his Druffalo because he had asked nicely and no one assumed he was sleeping with him in return for favours.

Lysander’s flippant comment had only made him snap all the more viciously.

He couldn’t seem to push from his mind the look of hurt that had settled on Lysander’s face after Dorian had shouted at him for interfering where he wasn’t wanted. 

The real reason this had angered him was that it served as another reminder that they were not equals, that Lysander as the Inquisitor would always have more power and influence than him and Dorian couldn’t imagine how that wouldn’t eventually affect their interactions. It also brought to attention that Dorian was far more invested that he should ever had allowed himself to be. He had no idea what he would do if Lysander brought an end to what they were doing.

He was a fool to let a few kisses, a quick wit, and an easy smile go to his head but that wasn’t Lysander’s fault and he should never have turned his frustration on him.

To make matters worse, even though he knew he should simply apologise he knew exactly why he wasn’t; if he apologised he be forced to find out if Lysander was willing to forgive him. Despite the obvious flaw in his logic he would rather remain like this, and pretend he could return everything to how they had been than risk being told that sorry wasn’t enough to fix what he’d said.

A traitorous part of his brain helpfully informed him that whether it was him in the wrong or not if Lysander valued their friendship he would have apologised anyway.

On the sixth day since he Lysander had stopped talking Dorian once again found himself hungry and no dashing man was planning on bringing him lunch. While me managed to ignore it for a few hours he was eventually forced to acknowledge this was distracting him from reading. Begrudgingly he closed his book, properly for once as he actually had a bookmark within arms reach and no wet ink to worry about, and went to collect some food from the kitchens. He was lucky that the staff there seemed to like him more than almost all the other Southerns and didn’t seem to mind his odd eating times; flirting with the cook was never a bad idea.

When he returned, with a small plate of food, it was obvious that someone had been there in his absence. 

His book had been moved, but only as far as the desk and sitting on his usual chair where it had lain was a small box wooden box. He stood and stared at it for a few long moments. considering turning on his heel and leaving it there. He could deal with it later and no one would have to know that once again he had run from his problems rather than face them.

In the end it was only the knowledge that if left it there unattended there was a chance someone doing some snooping might discover it and touching it, even to hide it, would be acknowledge meant that would make ignoring it until later nearly impossible that pushed him to walk the final steps to pick it up.

He tipped the contents out onto the table where he and Lysander had kissed weeks prior and was unsurprised to see his birthright fall out with a clatter. It looked just as he remembered and he was sickeningly glad to have to back, despite what it represented. 

There was also rather unsuccessful attempt at what an origami nug. The folds were neat and sharp but Lysander had clearly been mostly guessing on the pattern and it only barely resembled the ones Dorian made. There was writing along the side, in a way that clearly indicated it had been added after the nug had been folded. The lettering was tiny and cramped but still readable.

“If you say you’re sorry for being an ass, I’ll say I’m sorry for interfering when you asked me not to. Then we could go back to normal? I miss you. Besides you need to show me how to do these properly, this was the best I could do without unfolding yours.  
\- Sander”

Lysander had hidden it in the middle of a sentence but Dorian fixated on it, reading the words over and over. Lysander missed him. The notion that the embarrassing gap Lysander had left was one he also felt about Dorian soothed the anxiety that Dorian had been steadfastly refusing to address. He might, if pushed, even say the idea of Lysander missing him when he wasn’t there made him happy.

The tightening in his chest that ached so wonderfully was back.

He placed the amulet around his neck, tucking it under his shirt but put the nug back in the back into the box, storing it carefully behind a stack of books were it was unlikely to be disturbed. 

With slight trepidation he went to find Lysander.

\---

Lysander woke first, mostly thanks to years of tight schedules learned during his time in the chantry, but it was still later than he would have liked. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept in without outside circumstances like illness, injury or a particularly impressive hangover forcing his hand. He supposed Dorian in his bed was as good a reason as any to be late.

Dorian was still tucked up against him, making soft noises as he slept and twitching ever so slightly periodically. Lysander smiled down at him caressing a line along Dorian’s jaw with his thumb.

He tried to edge his way out from under Dorian without waking him up but he only made it halfway before Dorian moved after him, seemingly trying to follow his heat source. Biting back a laugh Lysander gently pushed him off, feeling only a little guilty as Dorian groaned, being forced into that state of not entire asleep but definately not entirely awake either.

It did mean Dorian was a little more aware of the situation. 

Dorian tried to catch him around the waist with more purpose than his other attempts, looking up at Lysander, with large eyes. There was no strength in his attempt however and Lysander managed to break free from his arm with barely any effort.

“There’s meeting I’m supposed to be in,” Lysander explained, regretfully stepping out of Dorian’s reach. Dorian made a noise of protest from the bed but buried his way back into the warmth of the blankets.

Lysander collected a clean set of clothes from his wardrobe, pulling them on as quickly and with as little care as he dared. He ran both his hands through his hair, pushing it off his face and patting it flat. He glanced in the mirror, concluded that while it nothing about him looked great right now it was all acceptable. Most importantly the collar covered everything perfectly.

“I’m starting to think this was all an elaborate ploy to upgrade to a better bed,” Lysander called across the room, trying to hunt down where he had toed off his boots the night before. He considered asking Dorian if he remembered, but one look showed Dorian, face down in a pillow and already mostly back to sleep. Lysander had already had the pleasure of seeing Dorian in the mornings thanks to being in very close quarters when dealing with Inquisition business out of Skyhold so he was more than aware that Dorian was not a morning person. Although, this was the first time he’d seen him before Dorian had had a chance to fix his hair. Either way, he doubted Dorian would be any help for a while yet.

He finally found his boots under part of Dorian’s robe and sat on the edge of the bed to tie them, risking reentering Dorian’s arm’s reach. Fortunately Dorian currently seemed more occupied with becoming part of the bed to try and drag him back into it.

Once he was finished he walked around the bed and couched down next to where Dorian was sprawled. 

“Dorian?” Lysander placed a hand on Dorian’s shoulder, shaking him gently until Dorian made another noise that might be word but certainly not one any person alive would understand.

Dorian raised his head from the pillows to stare blearily at Lysander. His hair stuck up at entertaining angels and his eyeliner was wonderfully smudged leaving him looking so different from the version of himself he normally let the world see. Lysander decided, as though there was any doubt, that he would be perfectly happy getting to see Dorian like this every morning.

He leant in and kissed Dorian gently, who woke up enough to kiss back with sleepy enthusiasm. Lysander took the opportunity to run his hand through Dorian’s hair, trusting that just this once Dorian wouldn't even put up token protest; it really wasn’t like his hair could become anymore disorganised. 

He pulled away after only a chaste kiss, hand still threaded through the hair at the back of Dorian’s neck, taking in Dorian in all of his morning grogginess. He supposed he liked this version of Dorian for the same reason he liked Dorian’s plainer handwriting.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmured, with one final caress of his thumb before removing his hand. Dorian caught his wrist, looking at him with lips slightly parted. He notably swallowed, looking completely unsure with what to do with such a compliment, not yet awake enough to have put up all his carefully constructed walls.

In the spur of the moment Lysander leant back in and kissed the tip of Dorian’s nose, effectively breaking the moment. Dorian frowned in response, almost going cross eyed to see what Lysander was doing, only causing Lysander to laugh.

“Why?” Dorian asked, voice husky from sleep but still managing to sound completely bewildered.

“I have to go, I’m already late and Cassandra is going to be upset enough as it is,” Lysander said. “And your nose is cute.”

He straightened up, grabbing his reports from the desk, pausing briefly to grin down at the origami nug that had been sitting on top of stack of parchment. It seemed like forever ago since Dorian had given it him.

Behind him, Dorian huffed and dropped back into the bed.

“I’ll talk to you later,” Lysander said, with one last look over his shoulder at Dorian before disappearing down the stairs.

\---

His bed was empty by the time Lysander returned and Dorian’s clothes had been gathered from the floor. His bed was unmade and there was still an indent in his pillowed from where Dorian had been sleeping.

He ran his hand over the sheets finding them completely cooled. He wondered how long Dorian had remained after he had left guiltily hoping it had been a while.

He honestly did his very best to pay attention during the War Table meetings but this one had been particularly dry and thinking about Dorian naked in his bed was possibly the only thing that had kept him from getting so bored he made the sort of comment that would have had Cassandra glaring at him for the next week.

It was amazing how that woman was more terrifying than anything else he had had to face while in the Inquisition and that was including the possible Archdemon.

However, while he was selfishly a little disappointed that Dorian had left he wasn’t unsurprised; he didn’t expect him to lie around in his bed all day waiting for him to come back. Besides, it had been a long meeting, he wouldn’t blame anyone for not waiting until the end of it..

Out of habit he set to making his bed, pulling the sheets straight and tight.He was a little sorry to flatten out the impression Dorian had left however. His only rebellion from how the brothers in the Chantry had taught him to do it was his refusal to tuck in the blankets under the mattress. 

He reached across to pick up his own pillow, which had migrated closer to Dorian’s side sometime after Lysander had left only to pause. There was white paper flower sitting on his pillow, almost blending in with the white material which had caused him to miss it until he actually went to flatten the pillow. Lysander picked it up a smile already tugging at the corner of his mouth.

It was unique from all the other things he had seen Dorian make as it was on a black sheet of paper, with not a single word written on it, this had clearly not been an afterthought but something made with intent.. He had never seen Dorian make a flower before either and he wondered he had learned it from Felix and had had to practice the pattern before getting it right or if he had learned it from somewhere else more recently, for Lysander. A faint blush rose on Lysander’s checks at Dorian learning how to do this for him. He wondered how long Dorian had been considering giving it to him.

Lysander grinned, dropping down onto his made bed, ignoring creases he made in the sheets. He stared down at the flower, turning it over in his hands, carefully so as not to avoid any risk of damaging the flower. He was grateful that Dorian had left if on his bed rather than give it to him in person as knew he would have made a fool of himself struggling to find words to express his gratitude and that would have made them both uncomfortable. As it was, he could just smile like an idiot and enjoy the butterflies the token awoke in his gut.

He stood, unable to completely push the smile from his face to cross over to the desk to place the flower there, ignoring that it would likely end up being even more distracting than the nug.

He hesitated just before he placed it on the desk beside the nug before drawing it back. Servants sometimes came in to his rooms for all sorts of reasons, often to collect or deliver reports to his desk. Many of them had commented on the nug and asked where it had come from, having learned he didn’t exactly have a conservative view on how servants and their employers should interact.

This wasn’t something for them to gawk at. Besides, he didn’t want to see it receive the same damaging treatment the nug had to endure. 

Instead he turned back to his bed, opening the second drawer in his bedside table containing the few personal items that had both survived the explosion at the Temple and he had deemed worthy of being kept. He seldom found need to look at anything from that drawer which he highly suspected would stop being true after if he stored the flower there but perhaps it would do him good to be reminded of its contents more often, 

It seemed like as good a place as any.

He wondered absently, tucking the flower safe amongst his belongings, if going to see Dorian now would appear too eager. 

It only took him a second to realise that he really didn’t care.


End file.
